To find alien life on Mars, NASA mission moving forward via Hawaii

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Mars mission preparation is on the Hawaiian islands.

Many scientists including those at NASA believe that in the distant past, Mars, Earth’s rocky neighbor, once supported life. The said planet is always present in the list of worlds in the Solar System where humanity could find life first, alongside the mysterious moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

But to find alien life on Mars and other planets, scientists must first expand their knowledge about what life is. To that end, NASA is partnering with scientists to put boots on an island in the Pacific. As reported by the Popular Mechanics, scientists will explore the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park as the space agency prepare for future manned mission to Mars with a key goal: finding signs of life or life itself on the face of Mars.

A local newspaper in Hawaii reported that researchers will hike around Mauna Ulu to practice collecting rock samples as they would on Mars. The objective of the study is to develop a better system that future space missions will use on the Red Planet as they will look for samples that could host life.

The program is called BASALT, or the Biological Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains.

One of the hurdles in the exploration of life on Mars is possible contamination of rocks that might be home to invisible-to-the-eye bacteria according to University of Hawaii astronomy faculty member John Hamilton, as the main goal of the Mars mission is to find life there.

In August, also in Hawaii, the ‘Mars mission’ crew emerged after a year-long Mars simulation project. Since last year of the same month, six people have been living in a 1,200 sq. ft., solar-powered dome on the side of a Hawaii volcano, mimicking the environment on Mars. The project is known as the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS.

Moving to Mars

Of course, moving to Mars is no easy task. Billionaire philanthropist Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, who is also on its way to colonizing Mars, told his supporters via a Reddit AMA that people who will join the first manned mission to Mars should be prepared to die as the journey itself is “really very dangerous.”

Like NASA, Musk wants to put humans on Mars as early as possible. For him though, the first batch of Earthlings will fly to that planet in 2024 and land the following year.

To answer the question: “do we really need to colonize Mars?” Musk answered a resounding yes, as his main goal is to protect humanity from total annihilation. Because living on two planets is better than one.

Featured image is from the ISRO, India’s first venture to the Red Planet.